Page 51 of Unexpecting

I stopped just before I hit the top step. But I wanted to get pregnant with David. At least I was pretty sure I wanted to. I thought that’s where I was heading, even though I hadn’t totally made up my mind. I wished I’d made up my mind. I wished we’d done something about it so that I could say it was his instead of J.B.’s because I really didn’t think J.B. was going to be happy with me…

I wondered what J.B. would say. He had to be happy once the shock wore off, and maybe he’d want to—

Should I prepare a speech? Tell him, yes, I’m pregnant with his child, but I wasn’t expecting him to take any responsibility for the baby or me.That it was an accident, totally unintentional, and he didn’t have to do anything except if he—he was going to freak. Maybe I should wait to tell him.

But I was pregnant—really pregnant—and starting to get really excited, whoever the father might be, and I really wanted to tell someone. Now. And J.B.’s room was closer to the stairs than Coop’s. I’d tell Cooper next.

I burst through J.B.’s door without knocking. “J.B., you won’t believe it! Look at my pee—”

I trailed off when I noticed it was not J.B. in J.B.’s bed.

″Hey, Casey,” Morgan said sleepily.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“The nine months of pregnancy are peppered with joy and anxiety; excitement and uncertainty.”

A Young Woman’s Guide to the Joy of Impending Motherhood

Dr. Francine Pascal Reid (1941)

“Oh. Ohhhh! Morgan? Morgan…what are you doing here? Here—in J.B.’s bed? Here? You were down there?” I pointed to the stairs.

″J.B. came home and took pity on me having to sleep on the couch,” she told me, stretching her arms above her head. I couldn’t help but notice she looked very, very comfortable in his bed. Too comfortable to have spent the night there alone.

″But you said…”

″Hey. What’s with the party this early?” J.B. was standing in the doorway. I couldn’t help but notice he was wearing the same red striped boxer shorts that he had on the night we conceived. The night I got pregnant. The pregnancy that he didn’t know about yet, that I was about to tell him about after I got over the horrible, sick feeling I had thinking about him and Morgan.

A yawn split his face. “What’s up, Case?”

″Oh. Um.” I don’t have to tell you how the sight of Morgan totally took the wind right out of my sails. I wanted to take my sticks of pee and run back downstairs. This was not how I pictured this. I guessed I was notthe only one who was thinking about sex last night. But how could they? This couldn’t be happening!

″I gotta pee,” he said as he disappeared into the hallway.

″Pee,” I whispered. “I’ve got to go.” I didn’t know where to look or what to say. I just needed to get out of there right now because I had a terrible feeling I might be about to cry and no one involved in this little scene needed that.

″What have you got in your hand, Casey?” Morgan called out just as I was about to make my escape.

I froze and glanced down in my hand, where I was still clutching the three sticks, each with its urine-saturated tip and a bright blue plus in the window. It was obvious what they were. How would I do this now? I should have taken a moment to prepare, even though there was no way in hell I could have prepared for this little scenario.

″I’m pregnant,” I muttered, still standing in the middle of the room.

″What?” Morgan asked.

″I’m pregnant,” I said a little clearer.

″Oh, my God!” Morgan shrieked. She jumped out of bed—I was happy to see that she was dressed in the pajamas I gave her to wear last night—and grabbed me in a bone-cracking hug. “Pregnant! How? Who? When? Why didn’t you tell me?” Morgan was clearly over the moon with excitement, laughing and clutching me, but all I could think about was that she just had sex with J.B.

″Aren’t you excited?” she asked. “What’s the matter? I’m so happy for you, I could cry!” And her eyes began to get wet and weepy.

″What’s going on?” J.B. asked, coming back in the room.

Morgan started to jump up and down. “Tell him, Casey, tell him,tellhimtellhimtellhim!”

Reluctantly I faced J.B., feeling much like I imagine Anne Boleyn must have felt as she faced her executioner that fateful day she lost her head. Fear and resignation—a sense of just get it over with. I showed him the pee sticks in my hand so there wouldn’t be any question of me not telling the truth. “I’m going to have a baby.”

J.B. looked confused for a moment before clarity set in. “You’re pregnant?”

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